Ask the people they served with and they’ll tell you: The dogs buried at Fort MacArthur in San Pedro served their country with honor, bravery and dignity.

“They’re veterans,” sad Ernie Ayana, who served in the Army in Vietnam with a dog named Heidi at his side. “No doubt about that.”

Ayana, who is the Army sentry director for the Vietnam Dog Handlers Association, joined other military personnel, police and history buffs Saturday for the dedication of the fort’s newly refurbished canine cemetery.

American flags marked the spots on freshly laid grass where many of the dogs are buried, their names etched in metal plaques. There’s Cheetah, Lothar and Fritz. Exactly how many are there nobody knows because early records cannot be found.

A. Paul Acosta knew many of those dogs. He worked with them when he was guarding a Nike missile site in northern Los Angeles County. His own companion, Brutus, is also buried there, but his marker was stolen long ago, leaving no trace as to his exact location.

Acosta was teamed up with the German shepherd during military police training. They quickly formed a strong bond.

“He was smarter than I was,” Acosta said. “They’d tell us to turn left, but I’d turn right. But Brutus turned left. I spent more time with him than my wife.”

The ceremony featured salutes, a moment of silence and taps.

For those who came to pay their respects, the animals deserved all the pomp they received.

That it happened at Fort MacArthur was appropriate: The facility is where the first military dogs were trained nearly 70 years ago.

“This is a fitting tribute,” Acosta said. “These dogs deserve it. They contributed to people who wanted to serve their country.”

Ayana estimated that 100,000 men and women owe their lives to the dogs, which were used as sentries, bomb sniffers, booby-trap finders and scouts.

“If a scout dog didn’t catch a trip wire, the dog and the handler both blew up. They saved GIs that were left in battle. Those dogs found them.”

The small plot had been largely neglected until a group of volunteers decided a few years ago that it needed to be fixed up. With the guidance of Dorothy Matich, they raised about $40,000 for the effort.

“They’re veterans,” she said of the dogs. “Nobody asked them. They were brought in and trained. They deserve a little spot.”

If the dogs are remembered warmly now, they were mostly considered unnecessary by the military after they were no longer needed – and most of them were euthanized. Of the 4,000 sent to Vietnam, only a few hundred were shipped home.